Literature is my Utopia

This quote, by Helen Keller, represents much of what I am as well as other people who love, live and breathe books and words. I wish I had more books and have always wondered what it would be like to collect rare and first editions. I love the smell of books, the words whether modern or old fashioned, they are to be caressed, looked at and held with reverence. Books and literature are definitely my utopia.

This love of books goes back to my childhood when my Dad used to bring home a new book for me every time he went to town. I don't remember this as he died just after my fifth birthday but somehow he recognised that my future lay with the written word. I am sure they were just little books, probably Golden Books or similar, and perhaps some versions of books he had read as a child. Some of them were pop up books, those when you opened a page a picture popped up which was attached to the page. I loved these representations of the story and received several from my English grandmother when I was small. The first time I visited the library I devoured Beatrix Potter and had to be forcibly dragged away to also choose some other books.

Are children encouraged to read today as avidly as I did? I have heard of tiny children so used to seeing books on an ipad they try to flick the pages of real books. School libraries seem to have been downsized and the children's section of public libraries are much smaller and also lend videos and all manner of other material including comics nowadays. Groups, either for pre-schoolers or during school holidays, where books are read and games played always seem popular but where are the big numbers of children? Our own public library is closed for earthquake strengthening and our city's readers are reliant on small suburban libraries. This is not encouraging young readers nor those who find absorbing and understanding words very difficult.

What sort of books do you enjoy reading? My early introduction to books evolved into a lifelong love of non-fiction. Not only did this offer a great general knowledge but taught me much about the world. In the last five years I have become an avid reader of good quality novels as well, often finding them more relaxing that trying to absorb lots of facts which are now of little relevance to me. Books surround me, invade every space in my home, cover the coffee table and are crammed into bookcases. I cant bear to give them away or even lend them for fear of losing them to those people who forget they borrowed them in the first place. Literature is definitely a utopia.